1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to systems and tools related to pipe layout during the pipe fitting process.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the course of pipe fitting, two pieces of pipe are cut and joined together. This joining is typically accomplished by way of welding. The pipes may be easily cut if the desired joint is a butt weld or two pipes being welded together at the ends of each piece to form either a straight piece or an angle with use of modern fabrication equipment. Layout and cutting of the pipes becomes more difficult when dealing with joints that are not straight cuts or straight miters, but are saddle-type joints, branch-type joints, or pipes of differing diameters or cross section shapes.
Methods exist in the prior art for measuring pipe and determining how pipes should be cut prior to welding.
One method which may be employed includes utilizing template sheets which have been preconfigured for particular pipe sizes and angles between the pipes to be joined. These templates may be printed on paper or other medium suitable to act as a stencil, wrapped around the pipe to be cut, and used to transfer the contour of the cut to the pipe. Once the contour is marked on the pipe, the pipe may be cut to the appropriate contour for welding. While this method may work for standard pipe sizes and joint angles, it cannot easily be applied to non-standard pipe sizes or joint angles.
Another method is to employ a computer-aided design (CAD) system to calculate the contour resulting from the joining of two pipes. A contour template may then be printed and applied to the pipe as with the template sheets described above. Once the contour has been transferred to the pipe, the pipe may be cut to the appropriate contour for welding. While this method allows the contour for any joint to be generated and applied, it is time consuming to create the contour in the CAD system and print a single use template. A pipefitter likewise may not have access to a CAD system while working on a particular piping system, making adjustments to the templates impracticable.
Other systems include utilizing a fixed ring fitted with a plurality of pins oriented parallel to the central axis of the ring. The pipefitter places the ring around a first pipe and manually orients the first pipe with a second pipe in the desired configuration for the joint. Once the pipes are oriented, the pipefitter extends the pins from the ring to meet the surface of the second pipe. Upon making contact with the second pipe, the pins form the contour of the joint. The ring may then be raised along the body of the first pipe and used to transfer the contour to the first pipe. Once the contour has been transferred to the pipe, the pipe may be cut to the appropriate contour for welding. While this allows the pipefitter to create contours quickly while on the job site, it is limited in that the ring is fixed in diameter and will fit only a single size of pipe. A pipefitter must utilize multiple tools to fit differing sizes of pipe, and may not be able to utilize this type of tool for pipes of a non-standard cross section.
A solution is needed to address one or more of these shortcomings in the prior art.